Love
by DarkAngel0410
Summary: A one shot about Matt and Jeff. Light slash.


**Story Title: **Love

**Story Type: **Family, Light Slash

**Characters: **Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy

**Pairings: **N/A

**Rating: **NC-17

**Disclaimer: **How many times do we have to go through this, peeps? They're not mine; they belong to themselves and TNA.

**Warnings: **Angst, fluff

**A/N: **OK, so I wrote this after a really weird dream I had. There's no intended Hardycest at all, which, to be honest, is fucken weird 'cause my Hardy muses are pervs, but there are overtones. I guess you can only expect so much with these two. *glares at Hardy muses who smirk and go back to the spin the bottle game* So, you've been warned and what not. Oh, also, Christian had a hand in a little part of this. See if you can spot it, peeps.

**A/N2: **OK, I started writing this almost a month ago, and it just seemed to go on and on. But it's finally done, and I'm pleased with it; although I don't know how many people are actually gonna read this. My Hardy muses are thrilled that they finally got their own story, so it's all good. Hope you like it, peeps. And I know usually, I don't ask for feedback, but this time I am. I'm curious to know if anyone else likes this one.

Matt's only ever loved three people: his parents and his baby brother Jeff.

The first time he can remember protecting Jeff, they were at the beach and some kid came up and shoved him into his sandcastle. The first cry that Jeff let loose had Matt running to him. Before either of their parents could get to the boys, Matt punched him in the nose and told him to stay away from his 'Jeffro'. Ignoring his mother, who was apologizing to the other boy's mother, Matt sat down next to Jeff and let the three year old climb in his lap. "Don't worry, Jeffro, I took care of him; he's gone now." He wiped his brother's eyes and when Jeff pressed a sticky kiss to his cheek, Matt just laughed and rolled his eyes.

Later on, when his father's lecturing him about hitting someone smaller, Matt sits there and takes the lecture and when his father informs that he's grounded for the next week, Matt just shrugged. "Why'd you hit him?" Gil asked. "He pushed Jeff. And he scared 'im. I couldn't let him do that. Jeff's mine." With that, Matt left to go upstairs to say goodnight to his little brother. Gil just stared at his oldest son in bemusement as he left the room.

On Jeff's first day of kindergarten, Matt went with their mom to drop him off before he headed to his own classroom. After saying goodbye to his mom and brother, Jeff took a step into the room and when his teacher tried to say 'hello' to him, Jeff took one look at her and started crying. Turning around, he ran right to his brother and threw himself at him, sobbing.

"Hey, Jeffro, what's wrong?" Matt asked, listening intently as his brother mumbled into his shirt. He patted his back, trying to calm him down. Ruby looked at her sons, a little smile on her face. The boys were so close, they always had been. It was good to know that they would always have each other.

"Listen, Jeffro, no one is gonna yell at ya. If anyone does, ya come tell me and I'll take care of it, OK?" "OK," Jeff agrees, sniffling a little. "Will ya come back and get me later?" "Of course, I will. And I'll see ya at recess, too. Go into class and be good. OK?" "I will, Matt." With one last hug for Matt, Jeff turned and walked back into the classroom.

"Well, Matthew, you did a good job calming down Jeff." Ruby complimented her oldest, running a hand over the top of his head. "Thanks, Mama," Matt said, grinning a wide smile, pleased that his mother was proud of him. "I wanted to help him. Jeff's mine." With those last words, he ran down the hall into his own classroom.

As they got older it was always the same: anyone who bothered Jeff soon realized he had a crazy over protective brother that they had to deal with. Matt always had an eye on his baby brother, even when he was playing with his own friends. And on the rare occasions Jeff wasn't in his line of vision, he always knew when someone had thought it was a good idea to rough Jeff up. And he always answered the same way: usually with a swift punch to the face or stomach, followed by a warning to leave 'his Jeffro' alone.

The year Matt turned elven, his mother found out she was sick. When he over heard his parents discussing it in low tones, he knew it was serious. When they sat him down later that night, after Jeff was sleeping, they tried to explain to him what cancer was. Matt nodded and hugged his mom, telling her it was going to be OK. On his way to bed, he paused outside of Jeff's room before slipping inside to stand by Jeff's bed.

Jeff rolled over, blinking sleepily up at his big brother. "What's wrong, Matt?" Jeff asked, slightly worried that maybe something had happened while he had been asleep. "Nothing, Jeffro. Go back to sleep." Matt told him, determined to protect Jeff even from this. As trusting as always, Jeff smiled at Matt before rolling over and falling back asleep. Matt stayed a minute longer before leaving the room, closing the door gently behind him.

Over the next year, Matt watched as his mother got sicker and sicker, none of the medicine the doctors gave her were doing any good. Taking care of Jeff fell more and more on Matt's shoulders: he made sure Jeff got up in the morning, got Jeff dressed and to school, made sure he ate. That was the year Matt learned how to do laundry and realized he could not expect an eight year old to remember to take a bath and do his homework by himself every night. It was also when Matt learned how to cook -kind of- and they lived on frozen pizza and sandwiches for weeks since that was all his dad remembered to buy. But none of that really bothered Matt; Jeff was his and he liked taking care of him.

When their mom died both Matt and Jeff were crushed but not as much as Gil was. Years later, Matt would look back and think that it was like they had lost both their parents when Ruby died, because Gil pretty much gave up on life. He still went to work and paid the bills, but everything else was too hard for him. His sons were like a slap to the face because they reminded him so much of the wife he lost. He started spending more and more time out of the house, stopping at the cemetery for a hours at a time before he would come home. Usually he went straight upstairs to bed, barely bothering to check in with Matt to see how the day went.

None of it really mattered to Jeff; he missed his mom but more and more she was becoming a memory for him. Matt had long been his favorite person and it had been easy for Jeff to make Matt the center of his small world. It wasn't hard for him to remember to leave their father alone and to take his problems to his brother instead.

By the time they started wrestling in their backyard, the only time Jeff ever talked to his dad about anything was if he needed his signature for school forms -which he usually signed without really looking at them- and if he needed money for something -which Gil always handed over if he had it. For the most part, though, Jeff was content to ignore Gil just as Gil was content to ignore him.

When Jeff was sixteen, he was sitting at the kitchen table, drawing in his notebook. He was waiting for Matt to get home from work so they could work on a few holds before they met up with Shannon to go over poster designs for the next fair show.

Chewing thoughtfully on his hair, he sketched out a vague outline of Surge facing off against Wisp before he put the pencil on the table. Brushing his hair away from his face, he noticed the purple hair dye was wearing off. Fishing a pink hair tie out of his pocket, he was in the middle of pulling it up into a ponytail when Gil walked into the room.

"Hello, Jeff." Gil told his youngest son as he walked over to the fridge. Jeff raised an eyebrow, surprised that he had even said anything to him at all. When the smell of whiskey floated on the air, Jeff wrinkled his nose and sighed; that explained it. Gil didn't drink that often, but when he did it was always whiskey.

"Hey...Dad." Jeff said, hoping Gil didn't catch the slight hesitation. The only reason Jeff even called him 'dad' still was because Matt wanted him to. Jeff would do whatever Matt asked him to; his brother had raised him, not this man he barely knew.

His father grunted as he passed him on his way to the stairs. Ah, there was the behavior Jeff was used to. Glancing at the clock on the kitchen wall, he pouted a little when he realized it would be at least ten minutes before Matt got home.

"What did you do to your hair?" Jeff looked up in confusion. "What?" "Your hair. What did you do to it?" Gil asked again, his eyes focused on Jeff's hair.

Jeff ran a hand over his hair, still confused. Some of it slipped from the tie and fell in Jeff's face again. Catching the purple out of the corner of his eye, Jeff abruptly realized what this was about.

"Do you mean the purple? It's only hair dye; it washes out." Jeff informed his father offhandedly, not sure why Gil even cared. "Why would you do that to yourself?" Gil asked, walking over to the table. Jeff shifted uncomfortably, not used to having this much of his father's attention focused on him.

"Because I like it." Jeff answered honestly, glancing at the clock again. "You like it?" Gil scoffed. "It makes you look like a sissy." Jeff raised an eyebrow at the word but all he said was: "Matt said it was OK when I asked him about it."

"Next time ask me; Matt's not your father, I am." Gil informed his son before turning away. "Could have fooled me." Jeff mumbled under his breath. "What did you say to me?" Gil asked, a hard edge to his voice. He went back over to the table. Jeff didn't say anything, he just stared at the floor and wished Matt would hurry up and get his ass home. "Look at me, boy, when I'm talking to you."

Calloused fingers gripped Jeff's chin and forced his head up until he was staring at the same brown eyes as his brother. But while Matt's eyes always looked at Jeff with love -even when he was pissed or just tired of Jeff's antic's, Matt never stopped loving his baby brother- these brown eyes were filled with disdain and anger and suddenly, Jeff, who never felt anything towards his father but vague indifference, was pissed at this man who had ignored him since he was eight.

"I said 'could have fooled me'," Jeff spit out, his green eyes glaring. Gil dropped his hand, stepping back in surprise. Jeff stood up, his lanky body tense, gripping his notebook in his hand. "Ya think that after ignoring me for almost ten years, ya can suddenly tell me what to do?

"I asked Matt 'cause he's the one who matters. He's the one who took care of me when I was little, he's the one who did laundry and cooked while ya were doing whatever the fuck ya were doing. He read me stories and played games, helped me with my homework. Ya were too busy wallowing in your own grief to realize ya even had kids and now ya wanna play dad? Fuck ya 'cause I already have one and he's ten times better then ya could ever hope to be."

"Don't talk to me like that," Gil thundered, getting closer to his youngest son. "You have no idea what it was like for me. How hard-" "I couldn't fucken care less," Jeff interrupted, his voice cold. He didn't yell like Matt did when he got angry, his voice just turned to ice and he sounded like he could shoot you in the head and then go get lunch like nothing had happened.

"Ya know how hard it is for an elven year old boy to take care of himself and an eight year old? But Matt never backed down, never complained about any of it. He turned down a scholarship to UNC 'cause he didn't want to leave me by myself.

"And he's happy being here, taking care of me, of this house. The only dream he ever had was for me to be OK and to be a wrestler. And I'm gonna do whatever I can to give him those things 'cause he deserves it. He deserves _everything_.

"And if ya think for one minute ya can just get drunk one day and decide that ya wanna be a dad then you're as crazy as ya are pathetic. I already told ya: I have a dad, and Matt was more of a man at elven then ya could ever hope to be."

Gil, flushed with guilt and anger, reached out and back handed Jeff before he even realized that he was going to do it. Jeff lay sprawled on the floor, staring up at Gil in disbelief. He touched his cheek and then his lip. Glancing at his fingers smeared with his own blood, he just stared in shock at it.

"You ungrateful little bastard," Gil hissed, towering over Jeff. "Who the fuck do you think you are?"

Matt strolled into the kitchen to see his little brother on the floor, bleeding, and his father shouting. "Jeffro, what happened?" Matt asked, rushing over to kneel beside his brother. "He hit me, Matt," Jeff said in disbelief, touching his face again. Matt touched Jeff's face, brushing his thumb over his split lip.

He stood up, facing his father; fury written across his face and making his body shake. "Never, ever put your hands on my brother again." Matt told him, trying to keep himself from striking this man who had helped give him life. Gil tried to hide his shock that Matt was talking to him like this.

"You didn't hear the way he was talking to me. He's got no respect -" "Why should I?" Jeff demanded, getting up off the floor. "There's only one person in this house that I fucken respect and it sure as hell ain't ya." "Don't you dare talk to me -" "Fuck ya!" Jeff yelled, getting in his father's face. "You need to go upstairs, right now." Gil told his youngest son, his face slowly turning purple with anger.

Jeff just glared at Gil, crossing his arms over his chest and refusing to leave his brother. "Go upstairs, Jeffro," Matt said, quietly. "I'll be up in a minute; I want to take a look at your lip." "It's fine," Jeff grumbled, heading to the stairs. "I'm not five."

Matt smiled, taking his eyes off of Gil to look at Jeff. "I know. If ya want call Shan and tell him we'll do the designs tomorrow instead." Gil watched in disbelief as Jeff went upstairs without arguing.

"Don't ever hit him again," Matt told his father once he heard Jeff go into his room. Matt smiled to himself; whenever Jeff was especially angry or upset, he would inevitably make his way to Matt's room to listen to music or talk if Matt happened to be home.

"I'm his father," Gil reminded him, his eyes narrowing. Matt had always been the responsible one growing up; Gil was sure he would be able to reason with him. "He should do what I tell him to; I would never have talked to your grandfather the way he talked to me tonight."

"Yeah, your his father," Matt agreed sadly; he couldn't believe it had come to this. It was hard to reconcile the father he had for the first elven years of his life with the man standing in front of him. "But Jeff doesn't see it that way. Ya lost something when Mom died; we all did. But me and Jeff only had each other, ya made sure of that.

"I'll make sure Jeff stays away from ya, and I'll even ask him to watch his mouth," Matt told his father, amused despite the situation. Jeff had a mouth like a sailor most of the time and getting him to curb it would take a small miracle.

"But I can't make him respect ya and I can't make him love ya again," Matt said, shaking his head at the look on Gil's face. "Ya made your choice when Mom died and it's too late to go back now." "I lost the love of my life when she died; you don't -"

"We lost our mother!" Matt yelled, finally losing his cool. "But ya could never understand that. It was all about ya and _your_ pain. We lost our mother," Matt repeated in a soft voice, all the anger drained out of him. "And then we lost our father. All Jeff has had for the past eight years is me.

"He's your son; but he's my brother. _Mine_. And if ya hit him again, ya'll regret it." Matt informed his father, stopping to pick up Jeff's notebook off the floor before he went upstairs to his brother.

As they got older, they made their mark on the WWE, both together and separately. Matt kept his eye on Jeff but it was getting harder and harder to save his brother. In the middle of the mess with his brother's drug problems and the mess with Vince, Amy got tired of coming in last on Matt's list of priorities.

Matt couldn't blame her; he knew when they started seeing each other that eventually it would come down to the choice between Amy and Jeff. Just as he had always known who would win. Jeff was his, and he always had been. When she left him for Adam, most people expected him to feel betrayed, by both of them, but the truth was he just felt relieved. Finally, he could concentrate on what was important.

Matt doesn't blame her, because when it comes down to it, he only really loves one person.

Jeff got straightened out, but he lost his contract with the WWE, and in the scramble to figure out his life, Jeff signed with TNA. Matt let him go, asking Shannon to keep on eye on Jeff and make sure he did OK.

As Jeff toured with TNA, working his way up through their singles division, Matt concentrated on his own career, trying out new angles and feuds. He kept hearing whispers from TNA but every time he talked to Jeff or Shannon, they both sounded fine, so he let it go until he got a near hysterical phone call from Jeff, begging him to come get him from Florida.

Matt left Atlanta and sped the whole way down there, going even faster then was normal for him. He got there in record time and when he got to the hotel, he lost no time going to Jeff and Shannon's room.

Bursting in the room, he saw his brother curled up on one of the double beds, Shannon next to him, rubbing his back.

"What happened?" Matt demanded, going over and sitting next to Jeff. He hauled Jeff into his lap, petting his hair and trying to calm him down. Jeff shook his head, his sobs finally calming down now that his brother was here. Shannon shook his head when Matt looked at him.

"I have no idea; I went to the bar for a couple drinks and when I came back, he was like this. I couldn't get him to calm down, so I told him to call you." Shannon told Matt, his concern for his best friend on his face.

"Tell me, Jeffro. Please." Matt added softly. Jeff sighed and finally nodded.

"Well, remember how I told ya I was dating someone? Well, it was AJ," Jeff continued when Matt nodded. He didn't like where this was going already, but he let his baby brother go on.

"It's been a few months and we were supposed to be exclusive, but tonight I went to his room and..." Jeff trailed off for a minute before taking a deep breath. "And do ya remember how I told ya Jay was signing?" "Yeah, ya were excited 'cause ya haven't seen Jay in almost a year and – Wait; Jay? Jay fucked your boyfriend?" Matt asked in disbelief, unable to imagine anything more unlikely.

"No. Well, yeah, but he didn't know. I mean, everyone knew around here, but Jay just got here last week and we haven't really had a chance to catch up. But I went there and he was there. With AJ." Jeff closed his eyes, more embarrassed now then anything.

"I think they both said something, but the look on my face tipped off Jay, I guess and he started apologizing before he even got his pants back on." Jeff smiled slightly, amused by his friends antics despite the pain he felt.

"That's why your so upset?" Matt asked, rubbing Jeff's back. "No offense, Jeffro, but usually ya don't act like this when ya break up with someone." "No, it's not that. At least, not just that.

"Jay left, and then we started fighting; pretty badly, too. Next thing I know, we're shoving each other, and then he started swinging -" "He hit ya?" Matt asked, enraged. "We hit each other, Matty," Jeff told his brother fondly, using his childhood nickname. Matt glared at Shannon when he snickered.

"After we're done swinging, he just starts saying all this shit. About me, about Gil. Just all this crazy shit about how I should just start using again, and it was a shame I didn't kill myself when I was using. And he said how I was just a washed up has been, and – and when I left there... I wanted to, Matt, so bad," Jeff told his brother, his voice cracking.

Matt hugged Jeff again, holding his brother as close as he could. "I wanted to, and if I had run into anyone on my way back, I would've ask them to -" "But ya didn't Jeffro, that's the important part," Matt assured his brother, his voice calm and comforting, while he was enraged inside.

"Even when ya came back to the room, ya could've called someone besides me and ya didn't. Ya stayed here and when Shannon suggested it, ya called me. And let me tell ya something, little brother: I'm proud of ya," Matt pulled back so Jeff could see his face, so he could see he was serious. "Even a few months ago, ya wouldn't have been strong enough to just come back here and stay. Even if ya were upset and crying, ya still did it. Ya stayed clean, and that's what matters."

Jeff nodded and leaned into Matt, resting his head on his brother's shoulder. After a few minutes, Matt pulled back. "Ya still have to film tomorrow, right?' Jeff nodded, cringing at the thought of having to do anything tomorrow. "Well, I have two days until I have to be in Chicago, so I'll stay with ya. Alright?" Jeff nodded again, more enthusiastic this time.

"Let me go get a room, and my stuff, then we'll go get something to eat." "Can I stay in your room?" Jeff asked in a rush, giving Shannon an apologetic look. "It's fine," Shannon assured them both, relieved that Jeff had stopped crying. He knew how close Matt and Jeff were and he wasn't surprised that Jeff wanted to go room with Matt. "Maybe I'll be able to bring some girls back to the room now." Jeff rolled his eyes and laughed. "Yeah, it was _my_ fault ya couldn't do that before."

Matt laughed and after one last pat on Jeff's back stood up. "Alright. I'll be right back, Jeffro. Ya going to dinner, Shan?" "Yeah, I could eat." Shannon answered him.

Matt left, going out into the hallway and pausing for a minute while he tried to calm himself down. AJ Styles was going to get a surprise when Matt saw him again. As he went down the hall, he saw Jay coming out of his room at the end of the hall.

Jay glanced over and when he saw it was Matt, he walked down the hall. "Hey, is he all right?" Jay asked, glancing over at Jeff's room. "Yeah, he calmed down a little." Matt answered. "Thank god," Jay sighed in relief. "I didn't know, Matt. If I had, there's no way I would've -" "I know," Matt assured the other man. He had known both Jay and Adam for years and while he had had disagreements with both, he knew Jay would never have gone behind Jeff's back.

Jay nodded, relieved again but for a different reason this time. Matt's protectiveness over Jeff was well known, as were the lengths he would go to make sure he didn't get hurt. And honestly, he was just as happy that Jeff was OK as he was with the fact that he wasn't going to get an ass beating.

"Where's AJ's room at?" Matt asked as Jay turned to go. Jay looked at Matt and briefly felt bad for AJ. But he told Matt, 'cause he knew AJ deserved what he was going to get. Jay highly doubted he was the one the first one AJ had cheated on Jeff with, but he had a feeling he was going to be the last. "He's in 220."

Matt nodded and after bull shitting for a couple more minutes, he said bye to Jay and headed toward AJ's room. That stupid little fuck was about to find out why no one messed with his brother. No one.

Afterward, Matt went and got his bags, checked in and got Jeff and Shannon and went to dinner. While they were eating, AJ came over to them and apologized to Jeff. And if anyone noticed the terrified look AJ gave Matt or the limp he had when he walked away, no one mentioned it. Jeff was his and Matt protected what was his.

Later when Matt was contemplating his WWE career, and where he wanted to go, Jeff mentioned that he wanted to tag with Matt again and that he thought TNA would be good for his brother. Matt thought about it for maybe half a day and decided to try and get out of his contract with WWE. After all, Matt was always happier when he was closer to Jeff, and if his brother wanted him at TNA, that's where he would go.

Standing at the curtain at Genesis, Matt took a deep breath, ready to go wrestle again, on TV, for the first time in almost a year. He couldn't wait to hear the fans again, to hear them boo or cheer or even curse at him, but mostly, he couldn't wait to tag with his brother again.

Because, when it came down to it, there was only one person he loved, and Matt knew that's where he belonged: with his brother.


End file.
